A rider powered scooter as is generally understood is typically a two wheeled vehicle with a front free rolling, steerable wheel and a rear free rolling, non-steerable wheel connected to each other by a frame including a rider platform positioned between the wheels on which the rider can support himself. To move, the rider can roll or coast downhill and on level or elevated ground can use one foot to push off the ground as the other foot rests on the platform. To start rolling, the rider often runs along side the scooter to reach speed and jumps onto the platform to ride using the one foot push method to maintain motion. These simple coaster type scooters had gained popularity among young riders as they were generally easy to ride and required less skill to ride than a skateboard device which has no true steering mechanism other than weight shifting which required rider skill, balance and agility to steer the device. Both the scooter and the skateboard's use of very small wheels permitted the platforms to be very low relative to the ground. This improved the stability of these free rolling scooters. Scooters have no easy way to maintain speed and are somewhat limited in performance. Unlike skateboards which could be used in a variety of exciting ways including jumps and wheelies and other tricks, these coaster scooters simply are more limited and shortly after the excitement of the initial purchase, the child simply got bored or tired of the device. The scooter simply was not as much fun as a skateboard and could not compete with a bicycle in terms of performance, so the device was relegated to a fad which over time may lose children's interest.
Recently, to give the scooters some added appeal, several devices suggested adding one or two pedals to help propel the scooter such as the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,487,987 B2. One such three wheeled device called Pumgo® was made, marketed and sold, but this device is so slow, difficult to turn without tipping, hard to maintain balance and due to this provides limited entertainment and also is not a practical transportation device.
To overcome this lack of performance problem, an improved scooter concept was disclosed in a related patent application to which the present application claims priority. In that invention, the use of a reciprocating foot pedal scooter was disclosed using a drive mechanism that was described as a pair of two bar linkages. This co-pending application provided a scooter with the potential speed of a bicycle, this improved performance is a undoubtedly a desirable enhancement to make the scooter a more functional and versatile product for both young and older children as well as a viable means of transportation for both children and adults.
After prolonged research and experimental prototypes, and evaluations the development of that original concept has been markedly improved with technical features and changes heretofore neither appreciated nor recognized. The following description provides this latest improvement over the original basic design concept and makes this improved scooter far more reliable with superior propulsion performance and better rider stability than was previously possible.